Monthly Archives: August 2012

Doctor Georg Feuerstein has died, at the unreasonably young age of 65.

Feuerstein was the author of dozens of books on the yoga tradition and an unquestioned expert on the subject. His The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice (Hohn Press, 1998) is a tour de force of the subject. Although I did not know Dr Feuerstein personally, we exchanged many letters and I found him to be an unstinting and helpful soul, ready to share his knowledge at all times.

His Textbook of Yoga (Rider, 1975), was an inspiration to me when I was a youngster, and helped lead me further along this path than I at first thought possible.

He was kind enough in his book Tantra: The Path of Ecstasy (Shambhala Publications, 1998), to mention me in his preface, and encouraged me to put much of my work on my web site, www.shivashakti.com.

Dr Feuerstein was much opposed to the commercialisation of the tantrik tradition – so called “Neo Tantra” and insisted on a rigorous approach to the different traditions based on both scholarship and practice.

He is survived by his partner, Brenda L. Feuerstein. There are many tributes to him on Facebook page, Traditional Yoga Studies. ♥

TANTRIK practice spread to Sri Lanka, although little of it remains today. Here is the temple of Nalanda Gedige, about 20 clicks from Kandy, off the beaten track. It appears to have been embellished with saucy sculptures, although when I visited it in April last year, only one small motif remained. There’s some more information about this shrine, here. There is a Gorakhnath mandir in the precincts of the great Kandy complex… ♦